Archive for the ‘For The Luv of Art (FTLOA)’ Category

I swear I forget I have a blog sometimes. It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything and not that things are ever that interesting but it’s nice to have a central place to jot things down for future reference. Here’s are the cliff notes:

– Been back to work for a month now which is going good. It’s nice to have a routine back. The only drawback to being full time is I have had to stop breastfeeding all together. I was trying to hang on as long as I could and we made it to 2.5 months, but it was becoming too stressful and I was only pumping about 4 oz for the entire day. That doesn’t really even cover a feeding for Emma right now. So now we are bottle fed. That has been a HUGE emotional decision for me that I still am riddled with guilt over but I’m slowly getting past that now thanks to the support from my family and husband. I was formula fed and turned out ok. Right? RIIIIGHT? LOL

– Emma is growing like a weed. I swear she grows overnight. She is just a joy right now. Laughing and keeping us all entertained. Still can’t believe she is almost 3 months old. *sigh* – they don’t stay babies long.

– Girls are doing great. Been busy with sports and traveling soccer. We had a blast couple weekends ago decorating for Halloween and carving pumpkins. We also had a very nice visit with Grandma and Grandpa Lamb that same weekend. They got to watch all three girls play soccer and carve pumpkins with us and they got to love on Emma. – Wish we all lived closer to have more weekends like that. But I guess the distance also makes the visits even more fun and special.

-Had a low key Halloween night. The girls were with their mom and I didn’t feel like getting Emma out in the cold. Not that she would have much use for candy right now, and Lord knows I don’t need it. But we passed out the candy and everyone loved how the girls decorated the yard and were even taking pictures of the decorations. One thing I don’t understand though is how the porch light rule is no longer applicable? We ran out of candy about 7:30 and I literally sat in the dark but kids still were insistently ringing the doorbell. When I was a kid, no porch light meant no candy…….

Funny story speaking of Halloween – so I had to run to Walmart after work to get the candy and of course I’m in a hurry because I still had to go get Emma from daycare. And who isn’t in a hurry to get out of Walmart anyway? The place was a madhouse. Anyhoo – I grab some candy and I’m walking towards the registers when my boot slips on the floor and I go SPLAT. The candy goes skidding across the floor and my right elbow and knee took quite a blow. I don’t think I’ve moved so fast in getting up although I did have a slight gimp to my step. How stinking embarrasing and to have it happen in front of the store. Why not in a more private aisle or something. I’m sure it was quite the scene. Now I have a bruised knee and elbow and ego. Lesson learned…..don’t rush when in heels or boots on slick floors.

Now moving on to more scrapbooking stuff –

– For the Luv of Art will be hosting a Pinterest crop starting November 11. I’m loving this crop because now I can actually create something I’ve pinned! LOL I will post more details on the crop as they come available because trust me, you won’t want to miss the fun!

We have the weekly challenge up for November too that you can play along with here. But here’s the sketch I created for the Challenge. Be sure to go over and play along!

Here are a couple things I’ve created with some of the awesome MME – Mischevious line that you can pick up from FTLOA store here.

I will leave you with some digital projects I’ve done recently too. Still loving this Heritage Makers and I just got my order from all the layouts I’ve done and I have to just say what great quality and I am amazed how dimensional it looks even though it’s flat. love love love. And I’m super excited to be able to stay up on Emma’s scrapbook.

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Welcome to the first ever Blop Hop for FTLOA!!! And welcome to my humble blog. If this is your first time visiting, I hope you visit again! By now you’ve probably enjoyed and gained loads of inspiration! I hope you enjoy what I will share with you today! And just a reminder to be sure to post a comment on each blog you visit to increase your chances of winning a fabulous prize!!

Here is a list of the designers included in the hop in case you’ve gotten lost along the way:

So what will you have a chance to win here? How about this fabulous set of Pink Paislee stamps?

These stamps are a lot of fun and as you will see, they were used in a few of my projects! So be sure to leave me a comment for your chance to win this stamp set! **Also, be sure to include an email address or some way for me to contact you in case your name is drawn! I will randomly choose a winner on Monday morning. 🙂

Now – on to the fun stuff right? Here are my projects for you: (if you click on the image you can view it larger)

Supplies: I started with basic white cardstock and using my computer I printed Let’s Get together and the when and where. Leaving approximately 4″ of space for my design space. I stamped my background using the Pink Paislee stamp set. I also used the stamps for the watermelon and BBQ. The “note” pulls out to read BYOB.

We are lucky to have kids that love to read. Our youngest was asking me for a bookmark the other night so I thought “how PERFECT would this line be for a bookmark?” And voila’, the bookmark is created!

Now I’m super excited to share these next two projects with you because it was inspired by ONE sheet of 12×12 paper – this one:

Isn’t it fun?? So the first project I will share with you is my ABC book.

ABC – Mini Book

*Helpful tip: I used the same design for each letter of the alphabet which helps makes this little baby go by so much quicker! This is pretty tiny – it only measures 2 x 2.5. To make this a little more sturdy I cut pieces of chipboard to adhere my paper too. I just used 2″ binder rings to bind it together using my Big Bite to punch through the paper/chipboard.

And finally – I had the other squares with the boys/girls on it leftover after this mini was done and noticed how there were at least two of each! The count came out to be PERFECT for 12 pairs (24 total) cards to make a Memory game out of them! And that’s exactly what I did!

I found a small black box that measures about 2.25″ around. The cards themselves measure about 1.75 x 1.75 “. I adhered the pictures to the cardstock. To decorate the backside of the cards, I stamped the starbursts using the Pink Paislee stamp set above. The rules book I also used the bubble stamp and then typed up the rules and glued to a 2” circle.

Well, I hope you enjoyed your stay here and be sure to leave me a comment to enter for a chance to win the Pink Paislee Hometown Summer Clear Stamps!!! Now go here: Norma Kennedy for another chance to win more goodies! Have a great weekend! And be sure to check back on Monday to see if you are the lucky winner! xoxoxoxoxo ~ Renee

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Ooh, doggie – settle in folks. This is going to be a doozy of a post! I’m going to be packing in a lot of stuff in this post so grab some coffee and a muffin and get comfy. And don’t say I didn’t warn ya.

It’s been busy trying to catch up on 3 weeks worth of chores. I’m still trying to recover from vacation which I know I still have to finish my post for the 2nd part of our vacation. I will do that soon. – I know y’all can hardly contain your excitement *eyeroll*

We did have a good weekend though despite my PMS controlling my inner bitch. Saturday was busy with running errands and taking Cassie to the doctor to have him remove her earring. It had somehow pushed through into her lobe and was stuck in there. Of course, I didn’t want to be the one to pull it out so we took her in. She did so good. The doctor even said, Well, this is as bad as bad can be. He thought he was going to have to slit the back of her ear to get the ring to pull through but by the time he got the numbing shot in her ear he was able to just pull it right out. Poor girl. She’s certainly in no rush to get her ears pierced again and actually wanted to take them out completely. Maybe in 4 years she will be ready to try again.

But Saturday night, I finally was able to get some scrap time in! I packed my bags and headed to Shanna’s house. It felt good to actually sit down and create.

I wish I would have had some extra time to try for the BoBunny Design Team Call but just didn’t happen for me this time around. Although I did have fun playing around with BB papers this weekend. I sooooooo wanna get my hands on Peacock Lane, Sun Kissed, and Petal Pushers.

Here is what I did:

This layout I used the Persuasion Line, double dot cardstock and ribbon with a splash of Mamarazzi rubons. I have to give credit to the fun doodling around the page to Shanna who was kind enough to do it for me so I didn’t ruin the layout! hahahaha

The papers for this are BoBunny Pet Shop. I fussy cut the dog, house, bowl and sentiment from the 12×12 full sheet and paper pieced it together.

And this for this one I used the ever adorable stamps from For the Luv of Art. Such versatile stamps that can be used over and over again! I just love the banner, and that cute little tree!

Now I’m going to rewind a bit since I never did get to share my exciting news from my Birthday weekend! My friends and husband are the most devious and sneaky little twerps but I just love them all so much!! They were all in on surprising me with Rachel (my BFF from Arizona) flying in to celebrate my 30th with me.

They had it planned to take me to a girls night on Friday while Tom picked Rachel up from the airport. Then as we all were sitting there enjoying our chips and salsa and drinks, the waiter comes over with 6 shotglasses full of tequila. We all kind of looked around at each other and I had assumed one of them said it was my b-day and bought us all a round but they looked just as puzzled and kept asking each other, did you, nope, not I, did you? I finally asked the waiter who they were from and he said a Rachel. Then my friends were like, I don’t know a Rachel, do you know a Rachel? I said the only one I knew was my friend in Arizona. The waiter said there was a Rachel at the bar if I’d like to thank her. So I get out and there at the bar is Tom and Rachel. I just started to cry.

Shanna got this picture of us and it’s my favorite since it still shows tears in my eyes. That was the BEST surprise EVER.

Here are some pictures I got with my camera phone with my best peeps!

Saturday we took Rachel around Mississippi a bit. She was intent on seeing a gator so we drove around the Trace to the swamps and around the Rez but it was raining and we didn’t see any.

Saturday night we had my actual birthday party at our house. Everyone had fun and I seriously couldn’t have dreamed of a better way to celebrate turning 30. Sunday was nice hanging out with Rachel. Then we took her out on the boat to go gator hunting – still wanted to see a Gator before going back to the desert. And luck was on her side. We actually saw about 5 of them after dark when we were heading back to dock. Here’s a picture of one that came right up to the boat following Tom’s fishing line.

It was hard to say bye to Rachel but I am sooooooooo glad she came out and that I have the greatest friends and husband to surprise me the way they did! LOVE THEM!

I will leave you with some more pictures. If you’ve stuck through this far! THank you and hugs to all of ya!! xoxoxoxoxoxo

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I know I disappeared for a week or more but I have a real valid reason for it! We had taken a family vacation from July 2 through July 11 and we had NO computer. I would have said something but since we were going to be away for so long I didn’t want to publicize our empty house for crooks to break into! 😉 — I will be posting a lot this week with shares of our trip. I just have to find the time to sit down and sort through the 800 pictures I took! YIKES!

And being on the stamp team, I got to play with the UBER ADORABLE stamp set that’s included in the kit!!! Norma, who is the SWEETEST person ever, also included some fun extras from the kit and store for me to work with too!

For this card, I used the heart stamp as a background and then used colored pencils to randomly fill the hearts. The hugs journaling card comes in the kit and the flower is a prima watercolor found in the store here. I just love stamps and the many different ways to use them! And these are just so cute and have been great fun to play with! I have a few more projects I’m working on to share with you using these stamps!! I know this set will be used A LOT!

These next cards I created before we had left during my week to host the Card-A-Day Challenges at FTLOA but I didn’t get a chance to update my blog and post them before we ditched town. I didn’t realize I was so far behind! gee-whiz! They are in order for Tuesday through Friday.

Challenge for Tuesday was to use the colors Pink, Teal and White. I just love this color combo and this card was inspired by that adorable stamp that came in the June kit at For the Luv of Art!

Wednesdays challenge was to make a hello card. I used all Fancy Pants summer rubons on this. The only thing that isn’t a rub on are the gems, twine and green Thickers.

Thursdays challenge was to create a card using older product from your stash. I used older Pink Paislee (one of my all time fave lines). Everything on here except the ribbon is Pink Paislee.

Friday’s Challenge was to create a card incorporating stars.

Easy enough challenges to hopefully inspire you to break out your scraps or older stash and get to creating a little.

And be sure to check out the current Card-a-Day challenges over at FTLOA – Brianne is hosting this week and is highlighting different calls for submission! So if you are the submitting type – you may want to go check it out! 😉

And while you’re over there don’t forget to check out the other challenges going on for the Weekly Tuesday Challenge and the current contest going on!

And if you want to stay up to date with all your favorite FTLOA happenings be sure to become a follower of the blog – For The Luv of Art.

And stay tuned here for updates on our recent travels! I will break it down over the next couple days! Thanks for peeping in and hope you all had a wonderful 4th of July! I’d love to hear how you spent yours!! xoxoxoxoxox

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We’ve actually been having quite a bit of sunshine lately. Too much if you ask me. I’m really pulling for some cloudy rainy days here so it’ll come and cool us down a bit. With the humidity our heat index is tapping out above 100 degrees and it’s just brutal. Takes the breath out of you!

Poor Tom was working out in the yard all day in it too while I was busy inside cleaning the house and doing laundry. You know the fun things you HAVE to get done before going on vacation for a few days? The girls even cleaned their room and reorganized their stuff. We made a day of it almost. But even inside, the humidity was so bad, I was working up a sweat! Which isn’t a bad thing I suppose but it sure does make me grouchy (but then again, doing normal housework makes the evil come out in me). I think that’s why Tom runs to do yardwork when I clean. The horns are out and he stays out of my way! hahaha But I’m here to tell ya – my pet peeve is to bust my @$$ cleaning and feel like no one cares and can’t pick up after themselves where I”m recleaning what I just cleaned. Grrrrrr.

ok..off my warpath….

I was able to get in some scrappy time this weekend in between a friends daughter’s 1st birthday party, which was so cute and fun, and watching the USA lose to Ghana and kick themselves out of the World Cup – another grrrrr. I was so happy about getting the time to scrap a little so I could fiddle with my June Kit from Fortheluvofart. I love this kit and am getting down to using it all but I know I have a few more things I can crank out with it still!

Here’s the layout I did of Sidney. I took this picture of her when she was here last for Spring Break. It’s one of my favorites of her.

The kit is filled with lots of MME and Fancy Pants and everything on here came from the kit EXCEPT the black thicker letters. And check out those feathers!! How fun is that? Adds just enough spunk to the flower on this otherwise VERY simple page. I really wanted to keep this page clean to focus on the picture and the papers were so pretty alone I couldn’t junk it up too much!

This other layout I started to create based off a challenge at Fortheluvofart but didn’t finish (ahem, by that I mean START) until this weekend. And the challenge was from 2 weeks ago. I did combine some kit goodies in here albeit small detail items. Such as the heart and ribbon, pattern paper (except music sheet). Did some misting on this but I kept this one simple as well since I’m putting it in a frame for Tom.

This layout I created for this past week’s challenge at FTLOA to use fabric on your page. I used some old burlap and fleece.

I love this picture of Cassie and how sweet she looks. What it doesn’t show is her sassy side too! LOL This kid is a riot and certainly is a lot of fun and entertainment!

This card I created couple weeks ago too for the card a day challenge at FTLOA but forgot to share it. The challenge was to create a card doing fussy cutting. I created this neighborhood scene by simply cutting the houses out of the paper by October Afternoon. Cut some scallops out of black cardstock and created the lanes with a white gel pen. Easy peasy.

And then I created this card for TODAY’S challenge at FTLOA to create a card that has some sort of paper piecing! I paper pieced the little umbrella and stitched it together. The clouds I hand drew out of glittered foam and the raindrops are metal accents from Joann’s. Embossed the background using the Swiss Dot folder onto Core’dinations cardstock and sanding it down. The sentiment is a SRM Sticker! LOVE those stickers!

That’s all I have to share for you today. I will update again later this week with some more fun things and to just pop in before we start our vacation! I hope you all have a great start to your week! xoxoxoxoxo